The legend

According to the legend (apparently based on the real history of Marie of Brabant, wife of Louis II, Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine), she was the wife of the palatine Siegfried of Treves, falsely accused of infidelity by the head of the household and sentenced to death, However, she was spared by the executioner to lived for six years with her son in a cave in the Ardennes, where Siegfried discovered her and reinstated her in her former honour.[1]

Stage versions of the legend

Among the many dramatized versions of the story are:

Leben und Tod der heiligen Genoveva a dramatic poem by Ludwig Tieck (1799)

Genoveva a play by Christian Friedrich Hebbel (1843)

Genoveva an opera by Robert Schumann (1850, inspired by Hebbel's play)

Geneviève de Brabant an opéra bouffe[2] by Jacques Offenbach (1859)

Genoveva a play by Mathilde Wesendonck (1866)

Geneviève de Brabant a stage work by Erik Satie (1899/1900)

Genoveva a Dutch play by Frans Demers and Jan Melis (1912).

Suor Angelica an opera by Giacomo Puccini (1918 opera, inspired by Hebbel's play)

The versions performed in South Africa

Geneviève de Brabant by Jacques Offenbach (1859)

Written as an opéra bouffe[3] by Jacques Offenbach (1859)

The original text

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1872: A performance of "a laughable and popular extract from Offenbach's Opera"

Genoveva by Frans Demers and Jan Melis

Also written Genovefa at times.

The original text

The play is based on Genoveva (also named Genoveva de Brabante or Genovefa in editions), a German prose version of the original legend by Christoph von Schmid [4] (1768-1854). Adapted for the stage as a sentimental three act Dutch play by Frans Demers and Jan Melis, with musical adaptions by Arthur Meulemans and published in Amsterdam by De Bussy, circa 1912.